A 500-pound black bear has been living under an Altadena homeowner’s house for more than a month, and the homeowner says the situation has gone from strange to “unbearable.” In a KTLA 5 report, journalist Jillian Smukler says the bear’s den is under the home’s crawl space and it still “refuses to leave.”
The homeowner, Ken Johnson, told Smukler he’s now planning to sue the California Department of Fish and Wildlife after he says the agency stopped actively trying to remove the bear. Johnson describes it as living with a noisy, destructive tenant who doesn’t pay rent and can’t be reasoned with.
Inside Edition covered the same standoff days earlier and framed it like a bizarre housing dispute with claws. Their report says it had been 32 days since the bear barricaded itself under the house, and it “sure seems to have found his forever home.”
Johnson’s friends even gave the bear a name that feels like the punchline to a nightmare: “Unbearable.” Johnson told Inside Edition that at this point, the name fits.
A Home That Doesn’t Feel Like Home Anymore
Smukler’s KTLA report lays out what Johnson says daily life looks like now: constant monitoring, stress, and damage that keeps stacking up.
Johnson told KTLA he can hear the bear moving beneath him, and he described plastic being shredded and a camera capturing the bear “bulldozing through” the mess under the house.
That kind of detail matters because it’s not just about fear. It’s about a home literally getting chewed up from below while the owner feels helpless to stop it.
Inside Edition captured the emotional side of it too. Johnson told them he’s frustrated and exhausted, and that every time he hears the house settle, he wonders if it’s the bear.
He also told Inside Edition he can’t sleep well, because the situation never really turns “off.” When your crawl space becomes a wild animal’s living room, your brain stops treating your house like a safe place.
In the KTLA interview, Johnson used a sports metaphor to describe how lopsided the battle feels. He told Smukler, “If I kept track of everything I tried, it would be Bear 14, Homeowner 0.”
That one line says a lot. It’s not just a bear problem; it’s the slow grind of trying things, failing, and realizing you’re losing control of your own property.
The Damage Hits A Breaking Point Around Christmas
The part that turns this from a weird local story into a serious living situation is the damage Johnson says the bear has caused. Smukler reports Johnson says the bear damaged his pipes badly enough that he shut off his gas.
Smukler also reports Johnson shut the gas off on Christmas Eve after seeing video of a broken pipe. Johnson told KTLA he hasn’t had hot water since, and that lack of basic comfort keeps snapping him back into anger and exhaustion.
Johnson’s quote to KTLA is painfully relatable: you distract yourself for a moment, then reality comes rushing back. He told Smukler he gets his mind off it briefly, then remembers he can’t even take a hot shower and still has to “monitor the situation all the time.”
That’s where the story stops being a “bear sighting” and starts sounding like a slow-motion emergency. A bear under the house is bad. A bear under the house while utilities get shut down and repairs are frozen is a whole different level.
And this is where people reading from the outside might shrug and say, “Well, it’s nature.” But Johnson isn’t describing a backyard bear wandering through. He’s describing a large animal living underneath his home like it has a lease.
Fish And Wildlife Tried – Then Johnson Says They Stood Down
Smukler’s KTLA piece says the California Department of Fish and Wildlife initially did step in. Johnson told KTLA the agency placed a trap near the crawl space, but the trap didn’t catch the big bear under his home.
Instead, Smukler reports the trap caught a smaller bear – “the wrong one” – which was hauled away while the larger bear stayed put. Johnson told KTLA he felt sad for that smaller bear at first, which adds a human note to a situation that could otherwise turn purely angry.
Later, Johnson told KTLA that biologists tried using air horns to flush the bear out. He said it looked like it was finally working – until, according to Johnson, the team got a call ordering them to stand down.
That “stand down” moment is the pivot point for his lawsuit threat. Johnson told Smukler he felt “very defeated,” because suddenly it felt like the burden shifted completely onto him.
Johnson’s words to KTLA paint the picture of what “on your own” means here. He said it’s like he’s expected to watch his phone for alerts in the middle of the night or sleep in the kitchen listening for the bear.
And Johnson told KTLA he even asked whether he could use bait to lure the bear out, but said he was told he couldn’t. That’s a key detail, because it highlights the weird box homeowners can get trapped in: you’re responsible for your home, but you’re restricted in how you can respond.
Inside Edition added its own angle on the removal attempts. Their report said a bear trap had been positioned by Fish & Game in the driveway, but the bear still wouldn’t take the bait.
Then they showed something that would make any wildlife officer groan: an “oops moment” where the Inside Edition crew may have accidentally triggered the trap by getting too close. They noted that triggering a trap can hurt someone and can make the trap less effective because of human odor.
It’s almost darkly funny – until you remember it’s happening at a man’s home while he’s losing sleep and losing hot water.
The Lawsuit Threat And What A Legal Expert Says Comes Next
Smukler reports Johnson now plans to sue, accusing the Department of Fish and Wildlife of negligence and emotional distress. Johnson told KTLA this has “gone on long enough” and said it’s something the agency should deal with.
Johnson also told Smukler an important detail: he says it’s a tagged bear and that the state has dealt with it before. He claims they chose not to euthanize it, and now it’s back – meaning, in his mind, this isn’t a new surprise, it’s a repeat problem that never got fully resolved.
KTLA legal analyst Alison Triessl adds a more formal legal framing in Smukler’s report. Triessl says the department has a duty to protect homeowners when there’s a public safety threat, and she believes Johnson may have grounds to take the issue to court.
Triessl’s point is not that Johnson is guaranteed money. It’s that if he can show the bear is causing damage and poses a safety threat, a judge may take the case seriously.
Triessl also highlights something that makes the agency’s alleged “stand down” feel worse. She says the Department of Fish and Wildlife has a lengthy policy for situations like this, and she claims it repeatedly emphasizes doing what you can to remedy the problem – without simply giving up and leaving the homeowner to wait it out.
Smukler reports KTLA reached out to the department for comment but didn’t hear back. She also says a camera is still set outside the crawl space and the agency says it’s “monitoring” the bear, but active efforts like traps or additional removal steps have stopped, according to Johnson.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: “monitoring” sounds nice in a press statement, but it doesn’t repair pipes, restore hot water, or give a homeowner back his sense of control. If you’re the person living above the problem, monitoring can feel like a fancy word for watching you suffer.
And stepping back, this story also shows how thin the line is between wildlife protection and public safety.
Most people want bears protected, and most people also want homeowners protected. When those goals collide under someone’s floorboards, the system needs a better answer than “sorry, good luck.”
Mark grew up in the heart of Texas, where tornadoes and extreme weather were a part of life. His early experiences sparked a fascination with emergency preparedness and homesteading. A father of three, Mark is dedicated to teaching families how to be self-sufficient, with a focus on food storage, DIY projects, and energy independence. His writing empowers everyday people to take small steps toward greater self-reliance without feeling overwhelmed.
